官术网_书友最值得收藏!

最新章節(jié)

書友吧

第1章 AUTHOR$$$$$S PREFACE

Historical Section Shawmut College, Boston, December 26, 2000Living as we do in the closing year of the twentieth century, enjoying the blessings of a social order at once so simple and logical that it seems but the triumph of common sense, it is no doubt difficult for those whose studies have not been largely historical to realize that the present organization of society is, in its completeness, less than a century old. No historical fact is, however, better established than that till nearly the end of the nineteenth century it was the general belief that the ancient industrial system, with all its shocking social consequences, was destined to last, with possibly a little patching, to the end of time. How strange and wellnigh incredible does it seem that so prodigious a moral and material transformation as has taken place since then could have been accomplished in so brief an interval! The readiness with which men accustom themselves, as matters of course, to improvements in their condition, which, when anticipated, seemed to leave nothing more to be desired, could not be more strikingly illustrated. What reflection could be better calculated to moderate the enthusiasm of reformers who count for their reward on the lively gratitude of future ages!

The object of this volume is to assist persons who, while desiring to gain a more definite idea of the social contrasts between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, are daunted by the formal aspect of the histories which treat the subject.

Warned by a teacher's experience that learning is accounted a weariness to the flesh, the author has sought to alleviate the instructive quality of the book by casting it in the form of a romantic narrative, which he would be glad to fancy not wholly devoid of interest on its own account.

The reader, to whom modern social institutions and their underlying principles are matters of course, may at times find Dr. Leete's explanations of them rather trite--but it must be remembered that to Dr. Leete's guest they were not matters of course, and that this book is written for the express purpose of inducing the reader to forget for the nonce that they are so to him. One word more. The almost universal theme of the writers and orators who have celebrated this bimillennial epoch has been the future rather than the past, not the advance that has been made, but the progress that shall be made, ever onward and upward, till the race shall achieve its ineffable destiny. This is well, wholly well, but it seems to me that nowhere can we find more solid ground for daring anticipations of human development during the next one thousand years, than by "Looking Backward" upon the progress of the last one hundred.

That this volume may be so fortunate as to find readers whose interest in the subject shall incline them to overlook the deficiencies of the treatment is the hope in which the author steps aside and leaves Mr. Julian West to speak for himself.

品牌:匯聚文源
上架時間:2016-01-18 18:27:05
出版社:北京匯聚文源文化發(fā)展有限公司
本書數(shù)字版權(quán)由匯聚文源提供,并由其授權(quán)上海閱文信息技術(shù)有限公司制作發(fā)行

QQ閱讀手機(jī)版

主站蜘蛛池模板: 云梦县| 开原市| 西乡县| 抚顺市| 灯塔市| 故城县| 永昌县| 游戏| 峨眉山市| 大方县| 沐川县| 明水县| 大关县| 尚志市| 定日县| 镇平县| 张家口市| 龙州县| 措美县| 洞头县| 龙南县| 察隅县| 金门县| 阳春市| 塘沽区| 醴陵市| 东城区| 南靖县| 宜章县| 自治县| 府谷县| 成安县| 临安市| 柳林县| 朔州市| 文安县| 阿拉善右旗| 攀枝花市| 玛沁县| 科技| 永胜县|